The Drake Curriculum

As a student at Drake, you will follow a course of study called the Drake Curriculum which is designed to provide the foundation for a superb education. The Curriculum will help ensure balance in your academic experience and introduce you to a range of important ideas—from the skills of analysis that make for an effective critical thinker to an understanding of the power and uses of information in our digital world.

The Drake Curriculum has three parts:

1. First Year Seminar

To start your Drake education, you will choose from one of many First Year Seminars. These are small, discussion-based classes, each with 19 or fewer students and each focusing on a fascinating special topic. You’ll take your seminar with other students living on your floor or in your building so that you will have a head start forming connections with other first-year students.

2. Areas of Inquiry

As you choose courses in your major and in other fields, you will take either one course in each of the following 10 different Areas of Inquiry:

• Artistic Experience
• Critical Thinking
• The Engaged Citizen
• Historical Foundations 
• Information Literacy
• Global and Cultural Understanding
• Scientific Literacy 
• Quantitative Literacy
• Values and Ethics
• Written Communication

3. Equity and Inclusion Requirement

All students are required to take a course that achieves stated Equity and Inclusion learning outcomes. They can fulfill this by taking an existing AOI course that meets these outcomes, or through a course in their major, minor, or concentration that meets them.

4. The Senior Capstone

The senior capstone gives you the chance to bring together the knowledge and skills you acquire over the first three years of your college experience in a single significant project. The form of the capstone will depend on your major. It can range from an internship or fieldwork experience to an independent research project or special seminar.

Honors Program

In place of the Areas of Inquiry courses, you can choose to complete the honors track, which has an alternate set of requirements. In this track, an honors course called Paths of Inquiry and several additional honors electives of your choice replace many of the Areas of Inquiry requirements.

A Personalized Pathway

Every Drake student completes the Drake Curriculum, but each does it in his or her own way. By choosing among many options for the First Year Seminar and Areas of Inquiry courses and completing a Senior Capstone that fits your individual interests, you will make your education uniquely your own.

Current Student looking for more information about any of these part of the Drake Curriculum, please visit the main  website.